Senator John Walsh (D., Mont.) will drop out of the Senate race following revelations that he allegedly plagiarized more than half of his research paper while at the U.S. Army War College. The state’s Democratic party now has less than two weeks to find a replacement candidate.
“I am ending my campaign so that I can focus on fulfilling the responsibility entrusted to me as your U.
S. senator,” he said in a statement, according to the Billings Gazette. “You deserve someone who will always fight for Montana, and I will.”Walsh had been weighing dropping out of the race following a New York Times report that he plagiarized and failed to properly as much as two-thirds of his final paper. His decision to drop out gives state Democrats until August 20 to pick a replacement to face Republican representative Steve Daines in the November election.
Read More at National Review
Walsh drops out of U.S. Senate race
When NBC Montana spoke to Walsh via phone in July, he said, “I made a mistake on the paper; I admit that. You know, now I’m going to focus on what’s important to Montanans, and that’s fighting for jobs, making sure our public lands remain in the hands of Montana and looking after women’s health care issues.”
Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock appointed Walsh in February to replace Sen. Max Baucus, who was appointed U.S. ambassador to China.
Walsh served 33 years in the Montana National Guard. He was the state’s adjutant general when Bullock, then attorney general, tapped him to be his running mate in the 2012 governor’s race.
Walsh served as lieutenant governor, his first elected position, for just over a year before his Senate appointment.
Read More – NBC Montana